Alec Smith

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Alec Smith, 2002

Alexander Douglas Smith, commonly known as Alec Smith (May 25, 1949 - January 19, 2006) was born in Gwelo, Rhodesia.^[1] He was a Zimbabwean army chaplain and farmer. He was the son of Ian Smith, the Prime Minister of Rhodesia (now called Zimbabwe) from 1964 to 1979. During that period, Rhodesia was an African country run by a white minority government when whites were never more than 5% of the population. Nominally a British colony, Rhodesia declared itself independent through a Unilateral Declaration of Independence (UDI) in 1965.^[2]

Smith (senior) had married Janet Watt in late 1948, after returning from war service with facial disfigurement resulting from crashing his Spitfire while taking off from an airfield in Egypt. Watt was a Rhodesian school teacher who had previously been married to Dr. Piet Duvenage, a South African who had died as the result of a sporting accident while playing rugby. At the time Watt met Smith (snr), she was struggling to support herself and two young children on a modest teacher's salary.

Smith (snr) adopted Watt's two children from her earlier marriage (Robert and Jean) and brought them up, as his own, with Alec. Contemporary accounts indicate that Watt was very much the driving force behind Smith (snr)'s rise in politics. Alec's relations with his mother were always more difficult than those he had with his father.^[3]

1 Life
2 Political involvement
3 Death
4 References

[edit] Life

Alec grew up on the family farmstead in Selukwe (now Shurugwi). In April 1964, when Alec was 14, his father became Prime Minister of Rhodesia. Alec later suggested that this had caused family life to suffer. In 1970 Alec started studying for a degree in law at Rhodes University in South Africa. On his own for the first time, Alec became increasingly alienated from his background and neglected his studies in favour of partying, drinking and drug taking. He first came to public attention at this time by applying for a British passport while declaring that he did not agree with his father's political views and considered himself to be British.^[4] He was expelled from university at the end of his first year in 1971. Subsequently, when returning from a vacation in Mozambique, the South African police found him in possession of a quantity of LSD and amphetamines. He was convicted of drug trafficking, fined and given a suspended prison sentence.

Returning to Rhodesia, Alec held a number of jobs. He also served compulsory periods of national service in the Rhodesian army. He was less than enthusiastic as a soldier and was never commissioned. Alec's lifestyle continued to be exuberant and this did not impress his conservative, church-going parents. However, at no time did they disown him.

In 1972 Alec had a religious experience (while driving his car) and became a born-again Christian, which he claimed freed him from drugs and alcohol and gave him a clear awareness of the injustice of white rule and discrimination against the majority black population. He became associated with the Moral Rearmament group, became a regular speaker at pro majority rule public meetings and befriended a number of black nationalist leaders.

In 1975, the Rhodesian government held talks with black nationalists at a conference at the Victoria Falls. That conference failed to produce a solution to the country's political problems, and both parties prepared for war. The Bush War started, in earnest, in 1976. The government mobilised the white population while recruiting volunteers and mercenaries from overseas in order to build up its forces. Alec was called up, but declined to serve. He slipped out of Rhodesia and went into political exile in London. His half-brother Robert, similarly alienated from the politics of white Rhodesia, had been living in the UK since 1970.^[5] Smith (snr) seemed to accept Alec's decision and the two remained in regular communication by letter and telephone.

While In London, Alec met Elisabeth Knudsen, a Norwegian student. The couple eventually married in Oslo, early in 1979. Alec invited his parents to attend the wedding and Smith (snr) was most anxious to do so. However, the Norwegians would not have it. The rebel Prime Minister was refused entry to Norway - to Smith (snr)'s surprise and disgust. In his memoirs, Smith (snr) records considerable bitterness over the refusal of the international community to recognise his government, and the Norway incident appears to have been 'the final straw'. The white minority government collapsed and a British governor took control of Rhodesia in December 1979. The Bush War ended a few days later and measures to demobilise the nationalist guerrilla forces were started.^[6] At that point, Alec Smith and his new wife returned to Rhodesia.

Salisbury, November 1978. Janet and Ian Smith at the final official celebration in Rhodesia of the anniversary of UDI

Alec was ostracised by some elements in the white population who viewed him as a traitor, and some blacks would not accept him because of his family connections. However, Alec and Elisabeth settled into a comfortable family life. Reconciliation between Alec and Smith (snr) was almost immediate. During the 1980s and early '90s, Alec held a number of jobs including, from 1991 to 1996, managing director of a professional football team (the Black Aces). Although not an ordained priest, he became a chaplain in the Zimbabwe army reserve. Alec and Elisabeth produced three children - two daughters and one son. Smith (snr)'s family role as a grandfather offered him some solace after the death of his wife Janet (from cancer) in 1994.

Alec later became his father's business partner. In this capacity he assisted in the editing of his father's memoirs and took over the running of the family's agricultural interests including the estate at Shurugwi. In 1984 he wrote a semi-autobiographical account of the struggle for majority rule in Rhodesia titled "Now I Call Him Brother". It was claimed that the book was partly ghost-written for Alec by the professional writer Rebecca de Saintonge.^[7] The book was not rated highly in literary terms and included the following comments on President Robert Mugabe (p124) : "Mr Mugabe's Independence speech should have roused every Christian heart in the land. The whole tone of his talk was so Christian in content that every believer's heart should have been warmed by the thought that he was talking our language."^[8]

[edit] Political involvement

During the period 1975 to 1979, Rhodesia descended into an increasingly violent civil war between the white minority government and the two black nationalist armies ZANLA and ZIPRA.

"The war was both bloody and brutal and brought out the very worst in the opposing combatants on all three sides" - Mike Subritzky (former NZ Army ceasefire monitor in Rhodesia, 1980)

The christian Moral Rearmament (MRA) group became active in trying to bring the conflict to an end. MRA seeks to secure social reform through personal reform and, to this end, promotes relationships between people on different sides in conflict situations. Alec Smith was a prominent member of MRA. The black nationalist party ZANU-PF won the 1980 election outright, but elements in the white elite were plotting a military coup (Operation Quartz) to prevent it from taking over the government.^[9]

MRA members sought to prevent a renewal of the war and determined that the only way to do this was to broker a face-to-face meeting between Robert Mugabe (leader of ZANU-PF) and Ian Smith. MRA member Joram Kucherera (a senior civil servant) used contacts inside ZANU-PF to approach Mugabe while Alec Smith approached his father Ian. Eventually, a meeting was arranged. Ian Smith went to Robert Mugabe's house, on the night of 3/4 March 1980, accompanied only by Kucherera. The meeting lasted several hours and was surprisingly friendly. The matter was settled - Ian Smith accepted the verdict of the election while Mugabe agreed to continued white participation in the government and administration.^[10]

Alec took no further role in politics, although he remained active in community issues through the development of sport. It is believed that he declined an invitation to participate in the Movement for Democratic Change in the late 1990s.

[edit] Death

In December 2005, Alec travelled to Norway with his wife Elisabeth in order to join her relatives for Christmas. On 19 January 2006, the couple started the journey back to Zimbabwe via London. While in the transit lounge at Heathrow airport, Alec suddenly suffered a heart attack - and died almost instantly. He had previously been in good health. His body was later returned to Norway for cremation while a memorial service was held at the Anglican cathedral in Harare.^[11]

The family deputed Inger (Alec and Elisabeth's eldest daughter) to break the news to Smith (snr). The latter had suffered a fall the previous year and had been obliged to live with his widowed step-daughter, Jean Tholet, in Cape Town. Ian Smith was reported to have been devastated by the news and not to have recovered from it either mentally or physically.

Alec Smith was described (by someone who knew him later in his life) as follows :

... a pale, slow-walking, slow-talking man with watery eyes and a gentle sense of humour. There was nothing overtly animated about him. He was a will- o'-the-wisp: you never knew quite where he'd come from or where he was going. Rebecca de Saintonge, The Independent, 2 February 2006